Posts Tagged“heart & hands wine company”

Uncork the Forks: 6 reasons for North Forkers to visit the Finger Lakes

I’m working on several stories after my recent trip to the Finger Lakes — but in the meantime, I wanted to share my latest column for the Suffolk Times, which can be found online on northforker.com Over the past several years, my family has fallen head-over-heels in love with the Finger Lakes region of central New York. It’s a stunningly beautiful part of the country that offers spectacular sunrises and sunsets, fishing, boating, wine tasting, great food and farmer’s markets, a relaxed pace and plenty of relaxation. In some ways, it’s a lot like the North Fork — except it’s…

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Heart & Hands Wine Company 2013 Patrician Verona Vineyard Riesling

When Tom and Susan Higgins set out to create Heart & Hands Wine Company, pinot noir was to be the focus — and it is. Tom is making some of the best pinot on the East Coast. At the same time, the riesling program has grown beyond what the couple expected (I tasted more than a half dozen bottlings on a recent visit) and offers outstanding quality as well. The fruit used to make Heart & Hands Wine Company 2013 Patrician Verona Vineyard Riesling ($28) was grown on the west side of Cayuga Lake on a site that consistently produces ripe, fruit-forward rieslings. That’s…

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Thoughts on the Finger Lakes’ Sh!##iest Vintage Ever

“No reserve wines in 2009 due to shittiest vintage ever.” It was one of the greatest tweets I’ve ever read, because it came from a winery employee. The tweet is long since deleted, but that is close to a word-for-word recollection. How could I forget it? I admired it instantly. Wine and food writers are often sifting through spin, and this was unvarnished. That was the summer that wasn’t, as my wife calls it. Almost never sniffed 90 degrees, and spent most of July in the low-to-mid 70s. Ripening was slow, and when frost came in October, it was, for…

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New York Cork Club: August 2015 Selections

The August 2015 wines for the New York Cork Club will ship once the weather cools a bit (the July wines will ship soon too I hope). In the meantime, I wanted to tell you a bit about them. (If you missed our announcement about the rebirth of New York Cork Club, check it out here.) For August, we’ll return to the “one red and one white” club shipment — with one classic grape from a well-known winery and one lesser-known grape from an under-appreciated winery included: Keuka Lake Vineyards 2014 Gently Dry Vignoles — Some look down on vignoles because it’s a hybrid grape…

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Searching for — and Finding — Distinctiveness in Finger Lakes Pinot Noir

Producing pinot noir is the wine industry’s equivalent to a high-wire act. When done right, it can be spectacular and breathtaking. But it requires courage and commitment, and leaves little margin for error. Pinot noir is a thin-skinned grape that requires a cool climate with moderate temperatures to be successfully cultivated. Excessive heat can rob the fruit of flavor and acidity. While it is fairly adaptable to different soil types (provided that the soil drains well), it also requires a certain amount of precipitation and long hang time for the variety’s characteristic aromas and complex flavors to develop. Despite conventional…

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In Death, a Finger Lakes Grower’s Impact, Achievements are Made Clear

In the final days of his life, when 53-year-old Paul Wellington didn’t have the strength to feed himself, Tom Higgins would make the drive over and offer to hold Paul’s bowl, or spoon. Or his hand. Higgins had become a close friend of Paul Wellington and his wife, Carol Prendergast-Wellington. Wellington was the skilled grower and vineyard manager at acclaimed Hobbit Hollow Vineyard on Skaneateles Lake. At first, Higgins loved the fruit. In the end, Higgins loved the man. Wellington passed away on May 15 after a rather lengthy battle with brain cancer. His death is a blow to the…

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Years After Finding the Special Spot, Heart & Hands Celebrates Fruit from Their Own Vines

It must feel ridiculous for Tom and Susan Higgins now, looking back on those frantic and frustrating days in 2005. They had spent so many hours, so many days searching for the right place to plant their vineyard. Tom had studied geological maps in search of the one component he found essential in his quest for great pinot noir: limestone. Those days, Tom wondered: Will we ever find it? If we do, will we be able to buy the land? Will this ever actually happen? Fast-forward to this past Saturday when Tom Higgins found himself complaining about having to remove…

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Watch “The Secrets of the Finger Lakes” in its Entirety

“Secrets of the Finger Lakes” aired original on September 12 at 8:30 p.m. on WHAM-TV and on 13wham.com For those of you who missed it — or want to watch it again — here it is broken into four clips. My television news superiors approached me about putting together a special report after the success of my book. At first I hesitated, because I didn’t want to simply air a rehashed set of stories that already appear in print. But then I saw an opportunity to tell new stories; these are some of the stories that do not appear in the…

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Heart & Hands Wine Company 2009 Pinot Noir

Over a relatively short period of time, Heart & Hands Wine Company has almost become synonymous with New York pinot noir. There are other wineries making good versions of course, but on a consistent basis, there isn’t a producer I can recommend more for pinot. Co-owner and winemaker Tom Higgins carefully sources fruit from dependable growers and his passion for the grape manifests itself in meticulous cellar work. Heart & Hands Wine Company 2009 Pinot Noir ($20) — which is closed under Vino-Seal by the way — offers aromas of red cherries and cranberries sprinkled with brown spice, star anise…

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Heart & Hands Wine Company 2009 Reserve Riesling

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Tom and Susan Higgins, owners of Heart & Hands Wine Company on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, have worked tirelessly to build a reputation for making what may be New York's best pinot noirs. It's clear that pinot is their passion and it shows in the bottle and throughout their entire operation. But, with wines like Heart & Hands Winery 2009 Reserve Riesling ($29) Tom, who makes the wines, proves that he's not a one-trick pinot pony. This is the Finger Lakes after all, where riesling rules and it seems silly not to make…

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